​Dearly Beloved,
 
"Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil" (Mt. 4:1). You will be tempted! You have been tempted to sin and will continue to be tempted. But you don't have to fall into the temptation to sin.  Why am I tempted? One of my Dominican brothers once wrote a little book with that title. One of many possible answers to that question is that Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, was tempted by the devil. Jesus' temptations are rooted in the sins of pleasure, possession and pride. The serpent tempted Eve and Adam in the same areas of human weaknesses. However, Jesus overcame his temptations while Eve and Adam fell to them.
 
The Temptation of Jesus puts our temptations in context. The three temptations Jesus encountered define the three basic temptations we all face: pleasure, possession, and pride. Like Jesus, we can overcome our temptations when we fight them by living a life of prayer, penance and giving. Lent allows us to practice these three biblical spiritual disciplines more intensely and intentionally. In addition, Lent calls us to metanoia, a change of heart. Then, if we are ready to return to God, we have support here in the parish this Lenten season.
 
The mystery of the cross will be a valuable symbol to guide us through this Lent. Do you remember the cross that was signed on your forehead on Ash Wednesday? Let us meditate around that cross. In this call to meditation on the cross, I strongly encourage you to attend the Stations of the Cross every Friday of Lent; after you eat our Fish Fry dinner, come into the church to pray. I will give a short reflection on the Five Sacred Wounds of Jesus on Fridays of Lent before or after the Stations. Be sure to attend our Thursday's Confession, Rosary, Mass and Adoration. We shall pray Liturgy of the Hours (Evening Prayers) during Adoration. Also, sign up for Hallow's 40-day Challenge. It is not too late to join. And there is more and more Lenten challenge to take on!
 
Marty Rotella will lead our Lenten reflection this Sunday from 7 pm through Spirit-filled music and message. You don't want to miss this faith-filled man of God. He brings healing, peace, and transformation of hearts through his Holy Spirit-led ministration. So come with your family and friends.
 
In Christ,
 
Fr. Bernard, OP
 

​ 
 
Dearly Beloved,
 
God says, "Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy" (Lv 19:2) and "be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5: 48). God's imperative call to holiness and perfection in sacred scripture is addressed to us today. But this Sunday, Jesus' sermon on the Mount demands a tough act and spirit from us: love your enemies. How do we even make sense of that or begin to do that? How can I want good for someone who wishes me evil?
 
In his infinite Wisdom, God calls us to a lifestyle that distinguishes us from the rest of the world. Our uniqueness as Christians derives from reflecting the nature of our loving and merciful Father. Therefore, Jesus requires us to extend love and mercy to all, including those who hate us, as our heavenly Father does. To do this, we must put on the mind of Christ. 
 
To become Christlike, we need a superabundance of grace. We can receive this by going on a retreat like I did last week. My five days of spiritual retreat allowed me to examine and restart my life. It was a time of prayer, meditation, and penance. We, as a church, get to do something similar beginning Wednesday. We will start our annual forty-day season of lent on Ash Wednesday. We will fix our hearts on "spiritual things" through a more intensified life of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. As we observe holy lent this year, let us keep in our prayers all our catechumens and candidates preparing to receive or complete the sacraments of initiation. During Lent, the church prepares her children for holiness by renewing them in the sacraments of initiation. 
 
I invite you to receive ashes of penance on Wednesday and participate in the Lenten fish dinner and the Stations of the Cross on Friday.
 
In Christ's Love,
 
Fr. Bernard, OP
 

 Dearly Beloved,
 
"Blessed are they who walk in the law of the Lord," who seek him with all their heart (See Ps. 119: 1-2). The heart of the matter in Graham Greene's 1948 classic novel, The Heart of the Matter, is that the protagonist, Scobie, is not in tune with his heart, hence his tragic moral disintegration. Green exploits the moral conflict in the heart of the tragic hero of his Catholic novel. (Now, some of you would be curious enough to check out the book from the library to read. That is the goal. Lol)" In this light, we, too, must check what is going on in our hearts.  We must get our hearts in line with the spirit of Christ.
 
Jesus said to his disciples: 'Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill" (Mt. 5:17). Jesus, as he rightly says, did not come to do away with the Hebrew Bible, the law and the prophets;   instead, he came to point us to its spirit, its depth, its heart. Jesus wants to reform our hearts.
 
Jesus' Great Expectation (an allusion to Charles Dicken's novel) of his followers is to go deeper than the Scribes and    Pharisees. Our righteousness, goodness, and holiness must exceed theirs. We are to embrace the heart, the spirit, and the conscience of the matter at hand, the divine law. Jesus' new law leads us to the true intent of the law of God- love, grace, mercy, and freedom. The old law says you shall not kill, Jesus says you shall not give room to anger, the old law says you shall not commit adultery, but Jesus says you shall not lust after another person in your heart. The old law says you shall not swear falsely, but Jesus tells us not to swear. So let your "Yes" means "Yes" and your "No" means "No." Think about these things. Check the heart. 
 
Holy families are the heart of a holy church and community. So Holy Family Fest was held last Sunday in our church to help build and sustain our families in holiness. The Holy Family Fest "was awesome!" That is a quote from Georgann Azzalina. She adds, "Michelle did an EXCELLENT job. Woohoo!!" I share Georgann's excitement, and we appreciate Michelle Schmitt's passion and sacrifices to bring this family-building spiritual project into reality. Our Catholic families are essential for the continuity of the church. I am thankful to all the families that participated and look forward to more families getting involved the next time we hold Holy Family Fest. Please support our young families.
 
Enjoy the Super Bowl LVII with family and friends. I expect the winning team's supporters and friends to express thanks in Church next Sunday through attendance and contributions. Lol!
 
Have a Happy St. Valentine's Day! Love you all!!
 
In the Heart of Christ
 
Fr. Bernard, OP
 

​Beloved brothers and sisters,
 
"You are the salt of the earth...You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:13-14). I went into the social hall kitchen on Monday night. My visit to the kitchen this time was not to scavenge for snacks and soda as I do from time to time when I take an intermittent break from my work in the parish office. I went into the kitchen because I noticed the lights were on.   To cut to the chase, I found some members of our outstanding Council of Catholic Women preparing food for the ECHOS winter program for the homeless. They could have been somewhere else and doing something more suited to their pleasure, but they chose to serve the needs of the poor and homeless. They bring into reality prophet Isaiah's injunction from the Lord that says: "Share your bread with the hungry" (Is 58:7).  
 
Jesus calls us to be the "flavor" that preserves the integrity of society. He calls us to bring light to places and people in darkness. We can make a case that Jesus is speaking about social justice action in these verses of the Gospel. We can become the salt of the earth and the light of the world by serving the human dignity goals of the Catholic Church's social teaching, her best-kept secret. 
 
Jesus calls and sends every baptized Catholic to be an agent of justice for the poor. So, the church will naturally always make a preferential option for the poor. Several popes, including Pope St. John Paul II, have made this call for justice: "Love for others, and in the first place love for the poor, in whom the Church sees Christ himself, is made concrete in the promotion of justice (St. John Paul II, On the Hundredth Year [Centesimus Annus], no. 58). Our parish, through ministries like Men's Club, CCW, and St. Vincent de Paul, and others serve the social teaching of the church so well, and I once again encourage them to continue their services and urge more hands to join them to bring the salt and light of Christ to our world.
 
In His Light,
 
Fr. Bernard, OP